January31, 2008

Washington, DC – Today House Armed Services
Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) and Readiness
Subcommittee Chairman Solomon Ortiz (D-TX) sent a letter
to Secretary Gates asking that he address continued
shortfalls in readiness when he appears before the
Committee next week. Text of the letter is below:

January 30, 2008

1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000

Dear Secretary Gates:

We are writing to express our grave concerns
about the readiness posture of the United States Armed Forces
and, in particular, the readiness of the U.S. Army. As
you may remember, we have on numerous occasions expressed our
distress about growing readiness shortfalls and our desire to
take every action necessary to restore our military to its
full capability. Our review of the most recent
Department of Defense quarterly reports detailing the
services’ readiness posture indicates that the past
readiness shortfalls have not improved but are continuing to
decline. This situation presents the United States with
an alarming strategic risk to our national security that we
believe must be addressed.

We have learned that the Army is continuing
to report shortages of equipment and personnel which, along
with the high operations tempo, make it difficult for units
to remain prepared for their full spectrum of combat
missions. The Congress has provided funds and statutory
authority to address this problem. Provisions in the
Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
mandating the creation of the Defense Materiel Readiness
Board were intended to address equipment readiness issues to
ensure that nothing slows the flow of needed resources to the
warfighter on the ground. We feel that this board and
the statutory authorities included in the NDAA are important
tools that can be used to address declining
readiness.

Over the past 30 years the United States has
entered into12 military conflicts, most of which we did not
foresee. We must not allow strategic weakness to exist
or we risk emboldening those who would seek to do us
harm. We simply are taking unacceptable risks in our
ability to protect our nation and our interests. We ask
that you address this readiness situation and the
Administration’s plan to mitigate the strategic risk
during your testimony before the House Armed Services
Committee on February 6.

We are very interested in the actions you are
taking, your plan for using new authorities, and any
additional steps that the Congress can take to help restore
our military’s readiness. We believe that these
readiness issues present a grave risk to our nation that must
be addressed now, before the next conflict emerges.